From director Roger Gastman—a producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop—comes Wall Writers, a documentary on graffiti in its innocence.

Through unprecedented access to TAKI 183, CORNBREAD, and a host of other legendary writers, Wall Writers tells the story of a time when underprivileged city kids refused to keep lurking in the shadows, when the streets were so wild that fame and infamy became indistinct, when art became a democracy and self-promotion became an art.

I never set out to make this documentary. I was doing research for a book I put out last year “The History of American Graffiti” and I became fascinated with the true beginnings of modern graffiti. So many graffiti writers my co-author and I talked to claimed they were the first to do it. That they did “this in 1969” or what ever year. If you did the math to how old they were the year they were claiming it just wasn’t true. I set out to find the truth.

Once I started digging up these early graffiti writers in New York City and Philadelphia, many who had not been talked to or had thought about graffiti in over 30 years I figured I better film them! Who knows if they will disappear again or not want to talk about graffiti again! The more people I interviewed and filmed the more I started to realize we had something special. A true “moment in time” that told the history of modern graffiti, something that has become the worlds fastest growing art movement.

We turned over every rock we could. Looked through every archive you could think of and we dug up some amazing photos and archive footage to help tell the story. FREEDOM aka Chris Pape helped produce and write the film, Ikey Owens (The Mars Volta is one of the many bands he has been a part of) came on and did the score. One of my art icons and amazing filmmaker John Waters did the voice over!

We have a 58 minute near finished film that I personally think is awesome and so do the people that have seen it. I have invested countless time and more money then I would care to admit into this project. Now I ask for assistance in getting it out there to the world. I need to acquire the rights too much of the archival footage and cover the costs of post production. Also I would like to do a weekend showing of the film in NY and LA before Wall Writers goes out for general distribution.

If you are a fan of graffiti, street art or subculture in general this is an educational film you must see. Please help make it a reality. It’s so close!

PS: all rewards can be shipped outside of US – just need to add shipping fee!